the passage of scripture that
I've been thinking about for some weeks was just made more
sense to me after hearing Wednesday of Irresistible Grace, which
truly just blessed my heart. And what I thought of that I
was thinking about open heart transplants, but you know where
it says, where Lydia, who is a picture of the church, whose
heart God opened. God has been doing open heart
transplants all along, and that's what He does, open heart surgery,
and I just thought that's what we have, and so I've been thinking
about How is this grace coming down? It's irresistible. How
does it come down to me? The Spirit of God, when He gives
us ears to hear, gives us faith to believe it. And so I want
us to turn this morning to Hebrews chapter 11, a very familiar passage
of Scripture, and we're going to read the first six verses. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now in Hebrews
chapter 1 verse 3, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, who being
the brightness of glory and the express image of his person,
that is the same word as substance translated here. The writer has
translated substance here. Because this substance in our
foundation and everything that is out of Christ comes from the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you could say faith is the
person of things hoped for. We hope in a person. We hope
in a person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how is it that we
have this? Christ in you is the hope of
glory. It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. In Colossians chapter 2 it says,
buried with him in baptism, also you are risen with him through,
and I want you to notice this little expression, through the
faith of the operation of God. The faith of the operation of
God. That is this open heart surgery. In verse 2, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. Now if you think of going to
the hospital and you're going to have surgery, the one thing
that you're waiting for after the surgery is for that physician
to come out and say everything went well and you have a good
report. And that's what you're waiting
for. And by this they obtained a good report. Well, how is that? How did they obtain a good report?
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
Word of God so that things which are seen are not made of things
which do appear. By faith Abel offered a unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts,
and by it he being dead yet speaketh." By faith, the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Enoch was translated so that he should not see death.
and was not found because God translated him for before he
was translated he had this testimony that he pleased God. And if you have the faith of
Christ, you please God in him. And did you know what? Neither
will you see death. Oh, we may experience the first
death, but the sting's gone out of it. But we'll be translated
too. We won't see the second death.
and that's a great thing. Here it is, but without faith
it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Now I want you to notice those
two little words, must believe that he is. You know what He
is? If you use it in the first person,
it is, I am. This is the same one that was
revealed to Moses, I am that I am. When the Lord Jesus Christ
says, I am, those soldiers that came to take Him fell backwards.
And so, you must believe. And you can't do that without
the faith of Christ which is given unto you. So let us pray. Lord, we do come
before you, and we ask that you would give to us and strengthen
our faith. For we know that you have given
this to us by measure, and it is strengthened by the continual
hearing of the gospel. And we come here again to hear
about the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ and what
he has accomplished in himself and we do thank you for it. Give
us ears to hear now and may the eyes of our understanding be
enlightened and may we go away rejoicing for we ask it in Jesus'
precious name. Amen. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And in verse 14, Solomon begins
with this declaration. I know. I know. Let me ask you a question. What
do you know for sure? I mean, what do you know for
sure? For sure? Anything? I wonder what's going to happen
in the Middle East. Anybody know? Our governing officials
don't know. You think as soon as you think
one thing's going to happen, something else happens. You wonder
what's going to happen to our economy. You wonder what's going to happen
to the weather. You wonder what's going to happen to me. You wonder
what's going to happen to you. I don't know. I don't know. I don't have an answer to any
of those things. We can speculate. We can hope. We pray that the
Lord will provide. But we don't know. There's such great comfort and
hope in being sure of something. I mean absolutely sure. Beyond
any shadow of a doubt. Can you say, I know this, I know
this, God's made me to be a sinner. I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I know that all my righteousnesses
before God are as filthy rags, and from the crown of my head
to the bottom of my feet, I am sores and wounds and leper. Apart from the grace of God,
left to myself, this is what I am. I know that. I know that
every imagination of my heart is only evil, and that continually.
I know. I know that. God's convinced
me of it. Do you know for sure, beyond
any shadow of a doubt, all the other things of uncertainty that
are in this world, when God's pleased to make you to be a sinner,
you know you're a sinner. You know you're not able to save
yourself. You know you can't believe. You
know you can't come. You know that you are worthy
if God exercised His righteous judgment against you, that you
would go to hell for all eternity and have nothing to say about
it. If God speaks, you will say with
brother Job, Behold, I am vile. You loathe yourself, as Ezekiel
spoke of. You know that. When God was pleased to speak
to Job, I love that. We looked at this a couple of
Wednesday nights ago. Turn to me to Job chapter 40. Job chapter 40. You would think that losing your health and losing
all of your children and losing your friends and having your
wife tell you to curse God and die, you would think that those
horrible circumstances would be enough to break you. And yet
Job continues to raise his fist to God and Justify himself until
God speaks. And after God speaks, look at
verse four of Job 40. And don't miss the first verse,
the first word. Behold, oh, I've just discovered
something I never saw before. I never saw it. Oh, you talk
about being a sinner and I knew what total depravity was and
I knew what being sinful was. I thought. until God made me
to be a sinner and then I was able to say with brother Job,
behold, I've seen something I never saw before. I am vile. I'm vile. You understand that
this is the problem that men have with the gospel. It doesn't
have anything to do with limited atonement. It doesn't have anything
to do with irresistible grace. It doesn't have anything to do
with perseverance of the saints. It doesn't have anything to do
with election. It has everything to do with seeing yourself for
what you are outside of Christ, vile, loathing yourself, unable
to do anything for yourself. Because if God ever teaches you
that, the rest of it just is easy. The rest of it's not only
easy, the rest of it's glorious. The rest of it is your hope if
the Lord ever makes you to be vile. I hear somebody saying, you know,
you need to have better self-esteem. The only possible way to stand
with any confidence before men is to stand vile before God. God makes you to loathe yourself
before him. Men won't scare you. Let God before me who can be
against me. Whatever men do, whatever happens
in the world, what all the uncertainties that I don't know anything about,
let them come. God's on my side. I know this. I know I'm a sinner. You know that. No hope of salvation apart from
being made a sinner. Solomon said, I know. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
Notice back in our text now, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse
14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Everlasting life doesn't have
a beginning. God in his sovereign purpose,
before the foundation of the world, before time began, before
the angels were created, in the beginning was the Word. God unconditionally
chose a people. He didn't look down through the
quarters of time and see those that would be virtuous or those
that would have a goodwill toward Him. No, He chose a particular
people according to His own purpose and grace in Christ. In Christ. God's elect have always
been in Christ. Never been viewed outside of
Christ. Though we say unconditional election, it was in a sense conditioned
in that he had to put us in Christ to elect us. But it was unconditioned
on our part. He didn't see anything in us. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall stand forever, and nothing can be put to it, and nothing
can be taken away from it. Can you say that? Can you say,
I know that's true. I know that's true. I don't have
a doubt about it. I'm absolutely convinced of it.
I don't know what's going to happen in this world, but I know
that about my God. I know that whatever He does
cannot be added to and it cannot be taken away from. And if a
man tries to add to it or take away from it, all he does is
condemn his soul to judgment. This book ends with that warning.
You go to the end of the book of Revelation. If any man add
to the words of this prophecy, the curses of this prophecy,
be it added unto him. And if any man take away from
it, it wasn't just talking about the book of Revelation, talking
about the whole canon of scripture, which is the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you take away from him or
add to him your works, Your name would be taken away
and the curses of this book would be added unto you. I know that. I tell you, I find
so much comfort in being sure of something. I mean, it's the only thing I'm
absolutely sure of. But what a glorious thing to
be certain of. What a glorious thing to be able
to say with Solomon, I know, I know that whatever my God does,
you can't add to it, you can't take away from it. And when he
determined according to his own purpose and will to choose the
people, you can't, when David said in his last words, he said,
although my house be not so with God. Yet He has made with me
an everlasting covenant. That's the covenant of grace
established by God from everlasting. Nothing can be added to it, nothing
can be taken away from it. And David went on to say, this
is all my hope and all my desire. All my hope. Though He make it
not to grow. When I was in seminary, my minor
was in church growth. I thought, well, I'm going to
learn how to grow a church. You know the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ is exactly the same size today as it was before God
shaped Adam out of the dust of the ground. And it's exactly
the same size today as it will be when this world is rolled
up like a scroll and burnt with fire. The church of the Lord
Jesus Christ doesn't grow. You can't add to the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't take away from the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. To them who were ordained to
eternal life, they believed. God's church hasn't grown not
by one person. Neither has it lost one. I know
that. Why? Because whatever God does,
you can't add to it or take away from it. I know, I know that what the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross when he laid
down his life for the sheep, I know that God satisfied with
him, that he accomplished the salvation of his people, that
his shed blood was that sacrifice that God required in order to
put away our sin once and for all. in order to establish a
perfect righteousness before God. I know that he's not frustrated. He can't fail. I know that. Now, I have to confess, there
are times when I wonder if it was for me. Times when I've got my eyes off
of Christ. Times when I'm looking at myself.
Times when I'm looking at the world. And the fear of wondering if
it was for me causes me to look back to Christ. And then I know. Then I know. I know with Solomon and with
every other child of God that God's grace is irresistible. It's irresistible. That when
God the Holy Spirit is pleased to make His power known through
the preaching of the gospel to the hearts of God's people, there's
nothing that can stop it. Nothing that can stop Him. He
makes His people willing in the day of His power. Does He bring you into the family
of God kicking and screaming? No. He makes you willing. You did a lot of kicking and
screaming before, but when the Lord makes you to be a sinner
and He calls you to see what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished,
oh, you flee to Him. You flee to Him, irresistibly
drawn to Him. You say with the apostles, Lord,
where else can we go? Lord, you've shut me up to Christ. And I know that He is able. to
keep his people from falling away and present them faultless
before the throne of God with great joy. If you can lose your interest
in Christ, if you can lose your interest in the gospel, first
thing I want to say is if you can, you will. And if you do,
it's because you never had an interest in it to begin with. It was nothing more than intellectual
pursuit. It was nothing more than a social
thing. It was nothing more than of the flesh. What God does,
you can't take away from it. When He opens the heart, you
can't shut it. And no man can snatch you out
of His hand. That means you can't snatch yourself
out of His hand. What great confidence! I know
that whatever my God does, it's everlasting. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. Nothing can be put to it, and
nothing can be taken from it, for God doeth it. And what is
the result of this? What is the result of this knowledge
that is part and parcel of our salvation? What's the result
of it? I'll tell you what the result of it is. It's worship. It's worship. You see that last
phrase, that men shall fear God? That's not a slavish fear. That's
not a fear of wrath and a fear of judgment. That's been satisfied
in Christ. It's a worshipful awe. It's falling
before His feet, seeking to know Him and to hear His voice. It's
to fear God. It's to worship God. Now, what
men are practicing in religion who do not believe this is feigned
worship. They're just pretending. They're
just putting on airs. They're just being religious. That's all they're
doing. Paul said, we are the true circumcision,
which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh. We worship God in the Spirit,
in Christ Jesus, have no confidence in the flesh. Now notice verse 15, that which
hath been is now. Now that means the past is the
present. Don't get confused about this.
It's not as complicated as it might sound. That which hath
been is now. And that which is to be, that's
the future, hath already been. And God requireth that which
is past." In other words, God's judgments are based upon the
past. And what this verse is saying
is that the present is the past. The future is the past. And all
of God's judgments are based upon the past. Three times in the Word of God,
the story of Hezekiah is recorded. Hezekiah the King. And the scripture
says in 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32 and Isaiah chapter 38, all
three times this story is recorded. The scripture says that Hezekiah
fell sick. The prophet Isaiah came to him,
told Hezekiah, he said, this sickness is unto death. He said,
set your house in order, you're going to die. And Hezekiah turned
his face to the wall and cried out for mercy before God. And
Isaiah came back and said, the Lord's heard your prayer. He
said, the Lord's extended your life by 15 years. And Hezekiah
asked the prophet, what sign will God give me that this promise
will be fulfilled? Now, before the scriptures were
recorded as we have them now, God often attended his promises
with signs and wonders. He did it through the prophets
of the Old Testament. He did it in the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He did it with the apostles.
I talked to somebody this past week and they said, well, they
were going to a Calvinistic church, but they believed in the sign
gifts. They believed in current gifts.
They speak in tongues and they do all this stuff. And I thought,
no, no. Those gifts were given in order
to confirm that what was being spoken was the Word of God. Those
miracles were performed in order to authenticate the message. Now, we are not in need of those
miracles. We're not in need of signed gifts.
Why? Because we test everything by
the Word of God. We ask simply, what sayeth the
Scriptures? And the Scriptures are clear, and the Scriptures
compared to the Scriptures remove all controversy. Just go to the
Word of God. But this was during a time when
The prophets were speaking, and so Hezekiah said to the prophet,
what sign will God give me? And Isaiah said, well, either
God will set the shadow of the sundial 10 degrees forward or
10 degrees back, you choose. And Hezekiah said, well, it's
a minor thing to set the shadow of the sundial 10 degrees forward.
Let God send it 10 degrees back. And he did. And he did. Now someone would
say, well, that's not possible. This earth on which we live is
traveling at over a thousand miles an hour. It would have
to come to a screeching halt on its axis and reverse its rotation. Everything unattached will be
slung into space and all the oceans will be sloshed out of
their basins onto the land. That's not possible. God reversed time. Why? To prove that his word was
true? No, to give us a sign. To confirm the gospel. that our God, our God is not
limited by time. To say to us that that which
is has already been and that which shall be has already been
and all things will be judged by the past. You know what you need and I
need Sometimes we think, well, I wish I had a new beginning.
You don't need a new beginning. I wish I had a different future.
You don't need a different future. You know what you need? You need
a different past. You need for God to turn the
hands of time backwards You need for Him to erase your
history and to record in His book the history of another. And only God can do that. He
reversed the rotation of the earth in the days of Hezekiah. to say to you and me that I am
able. All of my judgments are based
upon that which I have done in the past. Your salvation is not
determined by what you do or by what you shall do. The hope
of your salvation is established by that which God has done in
eternity past. We're talking about eternal justification
here. that God has established a people
in the covenant of grace. And what He has set, nothing
can be put to it. And nothing can be taken away
from it. It's established for all eternity. And it was established
before the world began. If that's true, then what contribution
did you have to your salvation? Only God can change history. We've got a lot of revisionist
authors today writing history books that are changing the events
of our past history, aren't we? And our kids are growing up learning
things in school that seem so foreign to us that have some
understanding of history. That's what I need. I needed
a revisionist history. I need God to reverse the order
of things. I need for Him to credit that
which is past as if it was present, and that which is future as if
it was past. And I need for God to make all
the judgments of my life based on what was accomplished in the
past. And not five years ago, ten years
ago, fifteen years ago. No, no. I need Him to go back
2,000 years. I need Him to look at the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross for me. You know what? I need Him to go back further
than that. I need for God to look at the Lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world when He established the
covenant of grace. I need to know that what He has
done, I can't add to it, nor take away from it. That's my
hope. It's the only hope we've got.
Every religion of this world is based upon something other
than what I just said. Every religion. It doesn't matter. There's some contribution you've
got to make. God, would you bring the rotation
of my world to a sudden stop and if need be sling me into
outer space and reverse the history of my life, cause the shadow
of the sundial to go backwards and credit to my account the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ? We spent the first hour speaking
of how this book is about Christ. You know who else it's about? This is a autobiography in that
the Lord Jesus Christ himself wrote it about himself, but it's
a biography in that it's also about his church. And everything
this book says about Christ is true of the body of Christ. So that as He is, so are we. It's the only hope we have. It's
called free grace. And it takes salvation completely
out of your hand. It's the free and sovereign grace
of God in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say,
well, that's going to, you just, you got to give people something
to do, don't you? Not if you want them to be saved. Strip them of everything. Strip
them of everything. Christ gets all the glory. And it's the only message. It's
the only message that will have any effect on the heart and the
life. Oh, the time of God. I know. Can you say, I know this? I know
that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and
nothing can be taken away from it, that I might learn to fear
God, to trust Him, to worship Him. And I know that what is present is what was past. And what was
future is what was past. And that all the judgments of
God are based upon that which is past. That's where I want to be found.
Not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Oh, to
be found in Him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, what hope, what comfort, what
peace we have in knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is all in salvation and in life. We thank you for this table.
We thank you for the unleavened bread and for the reminder that
it is of his righteousness, his perfect faithful obedience, the
one who is faithful and true. Thank you for the wine, the picture
of his sacrifice, the shedding of his blood for the remission
of our sins. Father, we pray that you would look at the blood
and pass by us. Pass by us in grace. Pass by
us in forgiveness. Cause your wrath to fall on him. And give us the faith to believe
that it has. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. I'm going to ask the men if they
would come please and distribute the wine and the bread. We're
going to sing number one in the soft back tenor and you can remain
seated.